Mass transit vehicles typically employ an information system in order to provide passengers with status updates and other useful information. For example, a controller installed on a mass transit vehicle such as a bus or shuttle may, when the vehicle is approaching a stop or when a stop has been requested, play pre-recorded audio and/or display text on a sign to announce that the stop is approaching. These information systems may be used in order to convey a diversity of information to the passengers; details like the mass transit vehicle's current route, its current location, any applicable tour and sightseeing information, and any applicable event information may all be presented.
The controllers on mass transit vehicles, and other similar information systems, are often reliant on outside information to function. Some of this information, like whether or not a stop has been requested by any of the passengers or whether there are any events that are scheduled to occur in the near future, might be manually entered or enterable into the controller. However, other information to be provided by the controller, like when the next scheduled stop is approaching or any location-based tour and sightseeing information, may be harvested from a combination of global positioning system data and the odometer reading of the mass transit vehicle. Using these two values, the controller can predict when to make an announcement for the next approaching stop.
When making these location determinations, a controller typically must measure a GPS location and an odometric distance, and must make a comparison between the measured GPS location and measurement of distanced traveled to a database of GPS waypoints and distances. Such databases have to be constructed before they can be used, and must be populated with, at minimum, the GPS waypoint data and distance data for the routes that the mass transit vehicle using the controller will follow.
One way of populating these databases is by manual data collection. This involves sending a GPS instrumentation vehicle out to follow the bus route or other mass transit vehicle route, and having this GPS instrumentation vehicle collect GPS waypoint data and distances traveled between the mass transit vehicle's scheduled stops and/or likely stops. Software may then be used to combine route and stop locations such as might be provided by the local transit authority with this field-collected waypoint data (“Geopath” waypoint data) in order to create a controller database, containing information for all or some of the routes in the local transit authority's system.
However, certain factors may limit the effectiveness of this type of data collection. First, manual data collection is often expensive; the data collection process requires a dedicated GPS instrumentation vehicle to drive along all of the mass transit vehicle routes operated by the local transit authority, and may even require that this process be performed more than once if more or better data is needed. Such a process may take weeks or months to perform, and may require a part-time staff who must be trained to perform the data collection.
Second, such data collection can often be inaccurate. Ideally, waypoints will be collected with a uniform level of spacing, such as every 50 to 60 feet. However, in practice, manually-collected waypoints may be collected extremely inconsistently, due to factors like adverse road conditions or poor staff training. Certain terrain features, such as sharp curves or underground tunnels, may lead to errors in data collection or otherwise may be difficult to characterize accurately.
There may also be other obstacles, such as legal or regulatory obstacles, to manual data collection. For example, if a stretch of road is under construction at the time of manual data collection, manual data collection might have to wait until the construction is completed. According to another example, there might be a dedicated bus route that only buses are entitled to travel on; data collection along this route may be possible only at a certain time of day, or may require a special arrangement with the local transit authority, both of which may make manual data collection more difficult.